How are you supposed to practice wrestling without touching anyone? You’re right  – you really can’t. The only way to make this happen or be possible is to change the workouts and practice scheme to spread people out due to COVID-19. Since the wrestling program got a new Head Coach named Mark Buckland, it should be a unique experience for the wrestlers to take on since wrestling is almost a complete contact sport.

 First, we start off getting our temperatures taken before practice as well as fill out a covid survey before entering the building to make sure everyone is healthy. After entering the building with a mask on The team heads to the team room to get dressed for practice. Then the team heads onto the mats that our great new coaches sprayed with antibacterial/covid spray and well washed before and after practice. They do all of this so we can use the mat after the team’s brutal conditioning and weight lifting we do at the start of practice that we do without any contact.

Before we get into the weightlifting and conditioning we have a good team stretch in our 10 by 10 ft squares on the practice mat in the wrestling room. After the team’s static stretching we jog to the weight room and get split into two groups. One group gets to go lift weights with Coach Almy with our intense circuit training of high reps and low weight we do. The other group goes with our other coach to do a warm-up run for 8 to 12 minutes that doesn’t feel like warm-up ¨more of a run¨. After we catch our breath and hydrate a little bit the group usually does another running circuit with either frog jumps, bear-crawl, crab walk, cherry pickers, and karaoke in between for about 8 to 12 laps depending on the day. 

After all of our strength conditioning gets over, there is still about 30 minutes left to practice! The team goes to the wrestling room where they get to practice on the mat for a little bit. Devin Pfau, a senior on the team, explained the discomfort of wearing a mask during practice because it feels like something is choking you when breathing heavily and you can’t get that full breath of air. As the team gets on to their 10 by 10 ft squares we work on stance and motion, stand-ups, and sprawling for 45 second periods. In between those periods, the team does a burnout of either push-ups, mountain climbers, sit-ups, and usually end on V ups for 30 second periods. These are the workouts and ways our Grand Ledge wrestlers, or any wrestler, can do to get themselves prepared for the season without even making contact to keep COVID-19 from stopping the season.